Love & Death

Love is not just a cure for loneliness; it’s the antidote to death. Let me explain.

When the word is spoken we go straight to romance, but it’s so much more. It begins with love for life, and of ourselves. That’s when it turns treacherous.

Love is scary. To contrive it is to kill it. You can’t make it up, but when it seems out of reach that’s exactly what we do. It requires a leap from the precipice of good sense. It’s a risk. Lose hope and we become bitter, sometimes cynical. Then, love is reduced to sex — or even worse, control.

We all want love but squirm when
we say so, as if it weakens us

We don’t just want it, we need it. On the surface it consoles. What’s less obvious is how it defines us. We’re loved, we’re not loved; we’re lovable, we’re not lovable. We slide along the spectrum of self-esteem, from low to high, from failed pretense to clear confidence.

We all want love but squirm when we say so, as if it weakens us. Trying to go without leaves us hollow, brittle. We sit around waiting for it to happen, thinking it’s something you feel. It’s not. It’s something you do. It’s like money. Invest it and it grows — if you’re lucky.

The element of luck is never absent. Life itself is the risk. Crave security too much and we lock ourselves in, shut ourselves off. Then we have a living death. That’s when love is the antidote. Love is reaching out, spreading your wings. It dares.

I love my plastic human brain. There’s
always another attitude.

I love being alive. I love my friends and family. I love the day and the night, the spring and the fall. I love food and wine, talking and exploring — but most of all I love my plastic human brain. There’s always another attitude. No matter how blind the alley, you can break through to a new day — right up to the last one. There will be a last one so don’t wait.

Change the way you see, change everything. Be mindful of your life, reflect on your experience and you’ll know with electric clarity: love is never a certainty; it’s always a possibility. Nothing’s forever. There’s no time to lose.

Author: Stephen Schettini

Host of The Naked Monk

2 thoughts on “Love & Death”

  1. Enjoyed reading, thanks.

    Love is freedom. It is a completely free deed. It is where & how we give lie to the myth of controlling circumstance and confining genes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *